Don’t waste your money on airfare, save that cash for more yoga classes!

Below my boyfriend explains how to travel for hardly any money at all!

General Travel Hacking Process

1. Sign up for a new credit card with a large sign up bonus. I’ll give you a suggestion of which card to start with in a bit.
2. Spend a minimum amount (typically between $1,000 and $4,000) on the credit card in the first 3 months. I suggest spending only money that you would be spending on a credit card anyway. Make sure you will be able to meet the minimum spend before applying.
3. Receive the bonus (typically 40,000+ miles or roughly enough for an off-peak round-trip to Hawaii or Europe).
4. Book a miles ticket (pay only taxes and fees). Ashley and I are flying round trip to New Zealand for around $150 each by using this technique!

Other Details

• Annual Fee: most cards have an annual fee that they waive in the first year. I typically downgrade (preferable) to a no-annual-fee card or cancel my card before paying this fee in the second year. Some cards don’t waive the fee in the first year and you will need to calculate if paying the fee is worth the bonus or not.
• Referral Bonuses: many cards give bonuses if you refer your friends to a card that you have. Typically the sign up bonus for the new cardholder is the same whether you use a referral link or not. When I sign up for a new card, I check to see if anyone I know already has the card so they can get an extra bonus if possible (my brother-in-law got an extra 10,000 miles for the last card I signed up for).
• Chase 5/24: Chase Bank has some of the best rewards cards on the market today. They also have the strictest approval rules. If you have applied for 5 or more credit cards in the last 24 months, then you will be automatically rejected for a new card. This makes Chase a particularly good company to start with while you don’t have many recent credit card applications.

Ashley here! If you have a business, you can really maximize the number of points that you are able to get by signing up for personal and business cards that get you points on the same airline, that is a big part of what has made this New Zealand trip possible.

Here are the cards that I have signed up for recently

• Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card – You can earn 40,000 points and I can be rewarded too!
• Barclay Aviator (American Airlines)
• Aviator Advantage Business Mastercard (American Airlines)
• Chase Ink Business Unlimited (Many Airlines, same program as Chase Sapphire listed above)